Environmental condition surveillance and methods thereof

ABSTRACT

A surveillance platform for the sensing, measuring, monitoring and controlling equipment and environments, such as food storage and retailing environments, data center environments, and other environments in which equipment performance, operating status, and environmental condition monitoring is desirable, is provided. The surveillance platform can facilitate reporting, visualizing, acknowledging, analyzing, calculating, event generating, notifying, trending, and tracking, of operational events occurring within the environment. Such techniques can be used to protect articles such as food articles, medical articles, computing devices and equipment, artifacts, documents, and the like.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/730,214, filed on Jun. 3, 2015, entitled “ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONSURVEILLANCE AND METHODS THEREOF”, and now issued as U.S. Pat. No.9,797,785, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 62/007,666, filed on Jun. 4, 2014, entitled“ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITION SURVEILLANCE AND METHODS THEREOF”. Theentireties of the aforementioned applications are hereby incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Climate controlled environments are created in a number and variety ofsettings and locations. Typical climate controlled environments mayinclude, but are not limited to, data center environments, health careenvironments, manufacturing and production environments, retailenvironments, food service environments, and food retail and warehousingenvironments, such as supermarkets and convenience stores. Variousenvironments may have sub-environments, which each may have individualclimate control requirements. For example, in supermarkets andconvenience stores, refrigerated display cases, coolers, and freezerscan each be a sub-environment having environmental conditionrequirements. A datacenter may have a plurality of sub-environments,with each sub-environment housing one or more racks or other computingequipment. The temperature and humidity of each sub-environment in adatacenter typically controlled in an effort to maintain properoperating conditions for the computer hardware. The conditions ofclimate controlled environments are typically monitored through the useof various types of wired or wireless sensors that are deployed withinthe environment. The amount of data collected from an environment isoften limited by the number of sensors, type of sensors, location of thesensors, and whether the sensors are operational. In the example contextof a refrigerated case at a retail location, a single temperature sensoris typically placed in the air discharge area to monitor and/or controlthe temperature for the entire case. A single temperature point cannottypically reflect true temperature dynamics across the case, nor does asingle sensor (or small sensor set) enable for service technicians toeasily identify root causes of problems for diagnostic purposes.

While increasing the number of sensors deployed into an environment canincrease the accuracy and functionality of an environmental monitoringsystem, adding sensors into an environment poses numerous operationalchallenges. For example, for existing structures, installing additional“after-market” wired sensors presents installation issues, as controlwiring must typically be routed from the sensor in the sub-environmentto a centralized control system. For structures under construction,wiring runs must still be installed to connect each sensor to acentralized control system. In both instances, running such controlwiring can be complex, labor intensive, and costly. Using wirelesssensors does not necessarily mitigate the issues. Wireless sensors aretypically battery operated or utilize energy harvesting techniques, suchas solar power. In both cases, the wireless sensors are typically placedinside the climate controlled environment. For battery-based sensors,due to the operating conditions of the sensors (e.g., low temperatures,humidity, condensation, etc.), the battery life can be reduced, therebyundesirably requiring frequent replacement, or otherwise resulting innon-operation sensors. For sensors that are equipped with energyharvesting techniques, the placement of the sensor may not expose thesensor to the necessary amount of ambient lighting necessary tosufficiently power the sensor.

Thus, it would be advantageous to provide for environmental conditionsurveillance systems and methods that address one or more of theseissues. Indeed, it would be advantageous to provide for a systemfacilitating deployment of numerous sensors within an environment whilereducing the challenges typically faced during sensor installation andoperation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

It is believed that certain embodiments will be better understood fromthe following description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which like references indicate similar elements and inwhich:

FIGS. 1-4 depict simplified example block diagrams of exampleenvironmental surveillance platforms.

FIGS. 5-7 depict example simplified graphical user interfaces that canbe presented on a display of a computing device.

FIG. 8 depicts an example computing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure will now bedescribed to provide an overall understanding of the principles of thestructure, function, and use of systems, apparatuses, devices, andmethods disclosed. One or more examples of these non-limitingembodiments are illustrated in the selected examples disclosed anddescribed in detail with reference made to FIGS. 1-8 in the accompanyingdrawings. Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand thatsystems, apparatuses, devices, and methods specifically described hereinand illustrated in the accompanying drawings are non-limitingembodiments. The features illustrated or described in connection withone non-limiting embodiment may be combined with the features of othernon-limiting embodiments. Such modifications and variations are intendedto be included within the scope of the present disclosure.

The systems, apparatuses, devices, and methods disclosed herein aredescribed in detail by way of examples and with reference to thefigures. The examples discussed herein are examples only and areprovided to assist in the explanation of the apparatuses, devices,systems and methods described herein. None of the features or componentsshown in the drawings or discussed below should be taken as mandatoryfor any specific implementation of any of these the apparatuses,devices, systems or methods unless specifically designated as mandatory.For ease of reading and clarity, certain components, modules, or methodsmay be described solely in connection with a specific figure. In thisdisclosure, any identification of specific techniques, arrangements,etc. are either related to a specific example presented or are merely ageneral description of such a technique, arrangement, etc.Identifications of specific details or examples are not intended to be,and should not be, construed as mandatory or limiting unlessspecifically designated as such. Any failure to specifically describe acombination or sub-combination of components should not be understood asan indication that any combination or sub-combination is not possible.It will be appreciated that modifications to disclosed and describedexamples, arrangements, configurations, components, elements,apparatuses, devices, systems, methods, etc. can be made and may bedesired for a specific application. Also, for any methods described,regardless of whether the method is described in conjunction with a flowdiagram, it should be understood that unless otherwise specified orrequired by context, any explicit or implicit ordering of stepsperformed in the execution of a method does not imply that those stepsmust be performed in the order presented but instead may be performed ina different order or in parallel.

Reference throughout the specification to “various embodiments,” “someembodiments,” “one embodiment,” “some example embodiments,” “one exampleembodiment,” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature,structure, or characteristic described in connection with any embodimentis included in at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of the phrases“in various embodiments,” “in some embodiments,” “in one embodiment,”“some example embodiments,” “one example embodiment, or “in anembodiment” in places throughout the specification are not necessarilyall referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particularfeatures, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitablemanner in one or more embodiments.

Throughout this disclosure, references to components or modulesgenerally refer to items that logically can be grouped together toperform a function or group of related functions. Like referencenumerals are generally intended to refer to the same or similarcomponents. Components and modules can be implemented in software,hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. The term “software”is used expansively to include not only executable code, for examplemachine-executable or machine-interpretable instructions, but also datastructures, data stores and computing instructions stored in anysuitable electronic format, including firmware, and embedded software.The terms “information” and “data” are used expansively and includes awide variety of electronic information, including executable code;content such as text, video data, and audio data, among others; andvarious codes or flags. The terms “information,” “data,” and “content”are sometimes used interchangeably when permitted by context. It shouldbe noted that although for clarity and to aid in understanding someexamples discussed herein might describe specific features or functionsas part of a specific component or module, or as occurring at a specificlayer of a computing device (for example, a hardware layer, operatingsystem layer, or application layer), those features or functions may beimplemented as part of a different component or module or operated at adifferent layer of a communication protocol stack. Those of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize that the systems, apparatuses, devices,and methods described herein can be applied to, or easily modified foruse with, other types of equipment, can use other arrangements ofcomputing systems, and can use other protocols, or operate at otherlayers in communication protocol stacks, than are described.

The systems, apparatuses, devices, and methods disclosed hereingenerally relate to providing a surveillance platform for the sensing,measuring, monitoring and controlling equipment and environments, suchas food storage and retailing environments, data center environments,and other environments in which equipment performance, operating status,and environmental condition monitoring is desirable. Additionalactivates facilitated by the surveillance platform can include, forexample, reporting, visualizing, acknowledging, analyzing, calculating,event generating, notifying, trending, and tracking, which are describedin more detail below. The term “protected article” is used herein torepresent any object, service, or system that is stored in, operatingin, or otherwise present in a climate controlled environment. Exampleprotected articles can include, without limitation, food articles,medical articles, computing devices and equipment, artifacts, documents,and the like. As is to be appreciated upon consideration of the presentdisclosure, the systems, apparatuses, devices, and methods describedherein can be used with a wide variety of protected articles, some ofwhich are described below for illustrative purposes.

Generally, the surveillance platform comprises one or more datacapturing elements, probes, and/or gauges, generally referred to hereinas “sensors.” The sensors can be configured to generate signals orotherwise indicate any number of environmental conditions, such astemperature, humidity, pressure, sound levels, air flow, carbon dioxidelevels, air quality levels, power consumption levels, lighting levels,current levels, voltage levels, and so forth. By way of example, in oneexample embodiment, a sensor can be a negative temperature coefficient(NTC) 10K Ω thermistor probe, or other type of industry-standard sensor.

In some embodiments, the sensors can be in communication with a sensormanager. Any suitable communication protocols or technique can be usedto facilitate data communication between the sensor and the sensormanager. For example, a sensor can include a lead that is inserted intoa port of the sensor manager. Alternatively, some sensors can wirelesslycommunicate with the sensor manager through any number of suitablewireless communication techniques, such as WiFi, Zigbee, or any numberof other near-field communication protocols. In some embodiments, asensor manager can be in communication with up to 10 sensors, while inother embodiments, a sensor manager can be in communication with morethan 10 sensors. A sensor manager can also be in communication with aplurality of sensors types, such as one or more temperature sensors, oneor more pressure sensors, and so forth. Furthermore, in someembodiments, one or more sensors can be onboard the sensor manageritself. Depending on the type of environment being monitored, aplurality of sensor managers can be deployed. The sensor manager can bepositioned within the controlled environment or outside the controlledenvironment. For sensor managers positioned outside the controlledenvironment, the one or more sensors in communication with the sensormanager can be deployed inside the controlled environment. By way ofexample, one or more sensors can be positioned inside a low-temperatureenvironment (i.e., freezer, cooler, refrigerator, etc.) and be incommunication with a sensor manager that is positioned external to thelow-temperature environment. In this case, the operational lifespan ofthe sensor manager may be increased, as it is not exposed to theenvironmental conditions that could adversely impact its performance.The sensors deployed within the low-temperature environment, however,can generally be more robust and configured for long term use in suchenvironments.

A variety of power sources can be used to operate a sensor manager suchas, for example, an on-board energy harvester. In one embodiment, theenergy harvester comprises a photovoltaic module, such as a solar panel.In some cases, a battery supply back-up can be used to augment the powerdelivered to the sensor manager from the on-board energy harvester. Abattery supply back-up can be used, for example, in environments havingsporadic lighting levels, such as a data center. The use of on-boardenergy harvesting and/or battery power supplies can enable the sensormanager to be placed proximate to a particular environment withoutneeding to run additional wiring for power. In other embodiments,however, sensor managers can be powered by an AC or DC power generationsources via suitable wiring or power transformers.

The sensor manager can be in wireless communication with an access point(AP). In one embodiment, the sensor and the access point communicateover a WiFi network. The AP can be a receiver for any number of sensormanagers. In some embodiments, since the sensor manager is in wirelesscommunication with the AP, the inconvenience of installing additionalcommunication cabling for environmental condition monitoring is reducedor eliminated. The AP can receive power from any suitable source, suchas a power adaptor or using Power over Ethernet (PoE) techniques, forexample. Generally, the AP can collect the data gathered from thesensors and forward it to an environmental surveillance computing systemthrough an Ethernet port to a local area network (LAN) or through theInternet via a router. In some embodiments, communication protocols canbe utilized that are designed to minimize, or at least reduce, theamount of energy needed to transmit a signal to a receiver. Exampleenvironmental surveillance computing systems are described in moredetail below.

In some embodiments, the AP can be configured to provide certainfunctionality in the event of a communication link failure or othertypes of networking issues. For example, in the event the AP losescommunication with the environmental surveillance computing system, theAP can locally store data collected from the sensor managers in a datastore. Upon reconnection to the environmental surveillance computingsystem, the AP can then transmit this data to the environmentalsurveillance computing system. In this approach, the environmentalsurveillance computing system can still collect relevant data frommonitored environments, even if the communications link between theenvironmental surveillance computing system and the AP experiencesoutages or downtime.

Through an environmental surveillance computing system personnel canaccess and view the data associated with one or more climate controlledenvironments, as well receive alerts of various events and conditions.The environmental surveillance computing system can be accessed, forexample, through any type of suitable computing device, such as a laptopcomputer, a desktop computer, a mobile computer (such as a smart phoneor a tablet computer), and so forth. In some embodiments, anenvironmental surveillance computing system is a component of a buildingautomation or management computing system. Additionally oralternatively, cellular networks can be utilized to provide transmissionof data from the sensors to the environmental surveillance computingsystems.

Environmental surveillance computing systems in accordance with thepresent disclosure can provide a graphical user interface to users.Example types of users can include, without limitation, store personnel,service and maintenance personnel, food quality or risk managementpersonnel, security personnel, audit personnel, and so forth. Throughthe interface, current and historical environmental conditions and otherrelated data can be graphically displayed. Events, such as overheating,overcooling, high humidity, and so forth, can be displayed to the userand, in some cases, request user action. Data can be logged, reports canbe generated, and diagnostics can be performed. Among other benefits,using the data collected and displayed by the environmental surveillancecomputing system, the root cause of an alarm can be assessed to help aidin the determination of whether a service person should be dispatched.

In some embodiments, the AP can be configured to monitor and instigatevarious alarms, alerts or other notifications during periods of timewhen communication to the environmental surveillance computing system isinterrupted. In this way, even if there is a communication link failure,at least some detected conditions can trigger localized alarms so thatappropriate personnel can address the issue, if needed.

Using the systems and methods described herein, the condition of aprotected article's environment can be monitored in real-time or nearreal-time. In the context of food-based protected articles, the systems,apparatuses, devices, and methods described herein can assist inmaintaining the freshness and quality of food products by helping toquickly identify and address temperature or operational issues. In turn,food waste and food safety risks can be reduced. In the context of datacenters, the systems, apparatuses, devices, and methods described hereincan be advantageously used to identify hot spots, over cooled areas,equipment overloading, effectiveness of raised floor strategy, andoptimal equipment positioning (such as AC units) to balance temperaturesacross the data center. Furthermore, sensor managers for data centerscan be integrated with a building's automation system through the use ofBACnet communication protocols, for example. In some embodiments, thesensor manager can include on-board sensors, such as a humidity sensoror a door ajar sensor, to aid in the monitoring of environmentalconditions.

FIG. 1 depicts a simplified example block diagram 100 of an exampleenvironmental surveillance computing system 108 in communication withvarious access points 120A, 120B. Merely for the purposes ofillustration, two access points are illustrated, with access point 120Aassociated with an environment 160. The environment 160 can be, forexample, a retail location having sub-environments 162A, 162B. Thesub-environments 162A, 162B can be climate controlled areas, such asrefrigerated food merchandisers, freezers, or other low-temperaturezones. Each access point 120A, 120B is shown to be in communication withat least one sensor manager, shown as sensor managers 128A, 128B, and128C. Each sensor manager 128A, 128B, and 128C can be in communicationwith one or more sensors 166. As described above, the sensors 166 canprovide data, in the form of a signal, for example, to the respectivesensor manager. This data can be provided wirelessly or through a wiredconnection. In some embodiments, sensors are positioned within thesub-environment while the sensor manager associated with the sensor ispositioned external to the sub-environment. Using this configuration,the sensor manager is not exposed to operational conditions that maynegatively impact its lifespan, such as low temperatures, condensation,high humidity levels, etc. In other embodiments, however, the sensormanager is positioned internal to the sub-environment, along with thesensors with which it communicates.

Each sensor manager 128A, 128B, and 128C can have a power supply 134. Insome embodiments, the power supply 134 can utilize energy harvestingtechnology, such as solar panels, so that external power sources are notneeded. In other embodiments, the sensor manager can receive power froma power adapter. In yet other embodiments, the power supply 134 canutilize a back-up power supply, such as an on-board battery, along withthe energy harvesting technology. The sensor managers 128A, 128B, and128C can also have a network interface 148 for facilitating wirelesscommunication with the respective access point 120A, 120B. As shown, thesensor managers 128A, 128B, and 128C can also have a sensor interface150, such as data ports, for facilitating communication with the sensors160.

The environmental surveillance computing system 108 can be incommunication with the access points 120A, 120B over one or morenetworks 126, including both wireless and wireline communicationnetworks. The environmental surveillance computing system 108 can beprovided using any suitable processor-based device or system, such as apersonal computer, laptop, server, mainframe, mobile computer, otherprocessor-based device, or a collection (e.g. network) of multiplecomputers, for example. The environmental surveillance computing system108 can include one or more processors and one or more memory units. Forconvenience, only one processor 110 and only one memory unit 118 areshown in FIG. 1. The processor 110 can execute software instructionsstored on the memory unit 118. The processor 110 can be implemented asan integrated circuit (IC) having one or multiple cores. The memory unit118 can include volatile and/or non-volatile memory units. Volatilememory units can include random access memory (RAM), for example.Non-volatile memory units can include read-only memory (ROM) as well asmechanical non-volatile memory systems, such as a hard disk drive,optical disk drive, or other non-volatile memory. The RAM and/or ROMmemory units can be implemented as discrete memory ICs.

The memory unit 118 can store executable software and data. When theprocessor 110 of the environmental surveillance computing system 108executes the software instructions, the processor 110 can be caused toperform the various operations of the environmental surveillancecomputing system 108. The various operations of the environmentalsurveillance computing system 108 can include communicating with theaccess points 120A, 120B, receiving data collected from the sensors 166,processing the data, as well as providing various types of graphicalinterfaces and portals for accessing and managing data stored orprocessed by the environmental surveillance computing system 108, asdescribed in more detail below.

The environmental surveillance computing system 108 can store and accessdata in a variety of databases 116 of a data acquisition server, forexample. The data stored in the databases 116 can be stored in anon-volatile computer memory, such as a hard disk drive, read onlymemory (e.g. a ROM IC), or other types of non-volatile memory. In someembodiments, one or more databases of the databases 116 can be stored ona remote electronic computer system and can be accessed by theenvironmental surveillance computing system 108 via the network 126. Asone having ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, a variety ofother databases or other types of memory storage structures can beutilized or otherwise associated with the environmental surveillancecomputing system 108.

Also shown in FIG. 1, the environmental surveillance computing system108 can include one or more computer servers, which can include one ormore web servers, one or more application servers, and/or other types ofservers. For convenience, only one web server 112 and one applicationserver 114 are depicted in FIG. 1, although one having ordinary skill inthe art would appreciate that the disclosure is not so limited. Theservers 112,114 can cause content to be sent to a computing device 104,or other computing devices, via the network 106 in any of a number offormats. The servers 112, 114 can be comprised of processors (e.g.CPUs), memory units (e.g. RAM, ROM), non-volatile storage systems (e.g.hard disk drive systems), and other elements. The servers 112, 114 mayutilize one or more operating systems including, but not limited to,Solaris, Linux, Windows Server, or other server operating systems.

In some embodiments, the web server 112 can provide a graphical web userinterface through which various users 102 can interact with theenvironmental surveillance computing system 108, examples of which aredescribed in more detail below with regard to FIGS. 4-6. As providedabove, example users 102 can include, without limitation, storepersonnel, service and maintenance personnel, food quality or riskmanagement personnel, security personnel, audit personnel, and so forth.The graphical web user interface can also be referred to as a graphicaluser interface, client portal, alert interface, client interface,graphical client interface, and so forth. The web server 112 can acceptrequests, such as HTTP requests, from clients and serve the clientsresponses, such as HTTP responses, along with optional data content,such as web pages (e.g. HTML documents) and linked objects (such asimages, video, documents, data, and so forth). The application server114 can provide a user interface for users who do not communicate withthe environmental surveillance computing system 108 using a web browser.Such users can have special software installed on their computing deviceto allow the user to communicate with the application server 114 via thenetwork 106.

The environmental surveillance computing system 108 can be incommunication with the sensors managers 120A, 120B and associatedsensors 166 via the network 126. The network 126 can be an electroniccommunications network and can include, but is not limited to, theInternet, LANs, WANs, GPRS networks, other networks, or combinationsthereof. The network 126 can include wired, wireless, fiber optic, otherconnections, or combinations thereof. In general, the network 126 can beany combination of connections and protocols that will supportcommunications between the environmental surveillance computing system108 and the various access points 120A, 120B.

FIG. 2 depicts an example system diagram 200. The system diagram 200includes element similar to FIG. 1, such as a sensor manager 228 that isin communication with sensors 266, an access point 220, and anenvironmental surveillance computing system 208. The sensor manager 228can be powered by, or at least partially powered by, solar energy. Inthe illustrated embodiment, a bank of climate controlled environments262A, 262B, 262C are depicted. In embodiments, each climate controlledenvironment 262A, 262B, 262C can be merchandising equipment at aretailer. As is to be appreciated, the climate controlled environments262A, 262B, 262C depicted in FIG. 2 can represent a wide variety ofenvironments, such as data center racks, refrigerators, coolers,freezers, and so forth. As shown, a user 202 can interact with theenvironmental surveillance computing system 208 through a computingdevice, shown generally at 204. A wide variety of computing devices canbe used by the user 202, such as a laptop 204A, a PDA 204B, a tabletcomputer, 204C, a smartphone 204D, a wearable device 204E, or any othernetworked computing device 204F.

As depicted in the illustrated embodiment, the sensor manager 228 is incommunication with an auxiliary sensor 268. The auxiliary sensor can beany type of sensor that may provide operational insight into anenvironment. In some implementations, the auxiliary sensor 268 is a doorsensor that provides a signal to a digital input on the sensor manager228. The door sensor can provide useful information when analyzing aroot cause of an elevated temperature event in the climate controlledenvironment 262B. For example, the climate controlled environment 262Bmay be experiencing elevated temperatures that exceed expectedoperational ranges. An elevated temperature event can be caused by anynumber of factors, such as a compressor failure, airflow blockage, etc.In order to perform a root cause analysis, the environmentalsurveillance computing system 208 can determine whether a door to theclimate controlled environment 262B has been open for an extended periodof time, which could cause the temperature event. Furthermore, in someembodiments, an alert could be generated based on the door sensorindicating an open door for an excess period of time.

FIG. 3 depicts another example system diagram 300. The system diagram300 includes element similar to FIG. 1, such as a sensor manager 328that is in communication with sensors 366, an access point 320 and anenvironmental surveillance computing system 308. In the illustratedembodiment, a protected article 380 is shown housed within the climatecontrolled environment 362. As shown, a user 302 can interact with theenvironmental surveillance computing system 308 through a computingdevice, shown generally at 304. Similar to FIG. 2, a wide variety ofcomputing devices can be used by the user 302, such as a laptop 304A, aPDA 304B, a tablet computer, 304C, a smartphone 304D, a wearable device304E, or any other networked computing device 304F. The sensor manager328 can be positioned internal to the climate controlled environment362, or positioned external (as shown). In this embodiment, sensormanager 328 includes an on-board sensor 383. This on-board sensor 383can be, for example, a humidity sensor or other type of sensor thatgathers useful data. The sensor manager 328 also includes an energyharvester 384 and a backup energy supply 386. In one embodiment, theaccess point 320 serves as a gateway to a BACnet communication network.Accordingly, the data gathered from the sensors 366 can be utilized bybuilding automation and systems management systems. In some embodiments,actuators can be used to provide alerts, signals, or other informationto personnel proximate to the climate controlled environment 362. Forthe purposes of illustration, a single actuator 382 is depicted in FIG.3. The actuator 382 can be activated upon the existing of certainconditions. The conditions may vary based on implementation, but exampleconditions can include, without limitation, temperature-basedconditions, power consumption-based conditions, and so forth. Theactuator 382 can be any suitable device or element, such as a graphicalelement on a display screen, a visual actuator (i.e. light), an audibleindicator (i.e., siren, chime), and so forth.

The status of the actuator 382 can be controlled by one or more entitiesof the system. In some embodiments, the environmental surveillancecomputing system 308 can cause the activation of the actuator 382 basedon environmental conditions being sensed by the sensors 366. In theevent of a communication link failure (e.g., the Internet connectionbetween the access point 320 to the environmental surveillance computingsystem 308), the access point 320 can assume control of the actuator382. In this regard, the access point 320 can continue to perform all,or at least some, of the environmental condition monitoring and whencertain events occur, activate the actuator 382 accordingly. Therefore,even in periods of non-connectivity to the environmental surveillancecomputing system 308, environment condition monitoring can stillproceed, with alerts provided as may be needed.

FIG. 4 depicts another example system diagram 400. As shown, a pluralityof sensor managers 428A-D are in wireless communication with an accesspoint 420. As is to be appreciated, while one access point 420 isdepicted, some structures may use multiple access points to provide thenecessary amount of coverage. Each sensor manager 428A-D is associatedwith one or more climate controlled environments and/or environments inwhich equipment monitoring is desired. Sensor manager 428A is configuredto receive communications from sensors 466 within climate controlledenvironments 462A-C. Sensor managers 428B-C are configured to receivecommunications from sensors 466 within climate controlled environment462D. One sensor deployed within climate controlled environment 462D canbe, for example, a temperature sensor and the other sensor can be, forexample, a power consumption sensor. Sensor managers 428D is configuredto receive communications from sensors 466 within climate controlledenvironments 462E-F. The access point 420 can include a data store 478to store some or all of the data received from the sensor managers428A-D. The access point 420 can communicate with an environmentalsurveillance computing system 408 via a router 421 and a network 426. Insome embodiments, when the communication channel to the environmentalsurveillance computing system 408 is not operational, the access point420 continues to collect (and in some cases actively monitor) the datacollected by the various sensor managers 428A-D. Once the communicationchannel connectivity returns, the access point 420 can download thecollected data to the environmental surveillance computing system 408.

In the illustrated embodiment, the environmental surveillance computingsystem 408 comprises a data acquisition server 470 that collects data ina data store 472. A monitoring portal 474 provides visualization of thecollected data for viewing on user devices 404, which can also connectto the environmental surveillance computing system 408 via the network426. In some embodiments, the monitoring portal 474 providesnotifications 476 to the user devices 404 by way of one or more deliverytechniques, such as text messages, email messages, voicemail messages,instant messages, social media messages, and the like.

In accordance with the present disclosure, a variety of graphical userinterfaces can be presented to a variety of users on a variety ofdifferent types of computing devices. FIGS. 5-7 depict examplesimplified graphical user interfaces 500, 600, 700 that can be presentedon a display of a computing devices 504, 604, 704, respectively. Thegraphical user interfaces can be generated by an environmentalsurveillance computing system (i.e., a web server and/or an app server)and can be provided to a user through an application interface, such asa standalone application or a web browsing application, for example. Thegraphical user interface 500, 600, 700 can be presented using hypertextmarkup language (HTML) and Java scripts, or a dedicated applet orapplication, or any other suitable interfacing means as would be knownor understood in the art. The user can be presented with a variety ofmanagement, reporting, and/or scheduling tools or options.

Referring first to FIG. 5, a simplified user dashboard 502 is providedon the user interface 500. As is to be appreciated, the particularcontent of the dashboard 502 may vary based on the type of user, thetype of protected article, the type of climate controlled environment,the type of sensors deployed, and so forth. In any event, in theillustrated example, the dashboard includes graphs that schematicallyshow environmental conditions (such as temperature or humidity, forexample) over time. The graph 504 is displaying data from two sensors,as indicated by plots 504A and 504B. The graph 506 depicts sensor datafor a particular climate controlled environment, with an overheated zone508 and an overcooled zone 510. As is to be appreciated, the particularranges of the overheated zone 508 and an overcooled zone 510 can beconfigurable. As shown by plot 506A, the data from a sensor indicatesthat an overheat event 512 has occurred and an overcool event 514 hasoccurred. In response to detecting these events, a recent event listing516 is populated. A user of the system can then decide if further actionmay be required.

FIG. 6 depicts an event detail notification 602 provided on the userinterface 600. The event detail notification 602 can be automaticallygenerated based on the existing of certain conditions within a monitoredenvironment (such as the overheat event 512 or the overcool event 514illustrated in FIG. 5). The event detail notification 602 may requirethe user take a certain action, such as acknowledge the existence of theevent. In some embodiments, the event detail notification 602 can beprovided through other notification techniques, such as an emailmessage, a text message, an automated telephone message, and so forth.

FIG. 7 depicts a graphical user interface 700 that graphically shows theunit being monitored 702. In the illustrated embodiment, the unit beingmonitored 702 is shown to be located at Store A. By selecting the StoreB tab, a user can view the status of units at other locations. A varietyof statuses are graphically provided to the user, including a lightinglevel 706, a power consumption level 708, a discharge air temperature710, a coil in temperature 712, a coil out temperature 714, a suctionpressure 716, and a return air temperature 718. As is to be appreciated,depending on the type of unit being monitored, the type of protectedarticle stored in the unit, and the type of sensors that are deployed,the statuses that are graphically provided to the user can vary based onimplementation. For instance, for data center monitoring, humidityinformation can be provided through the graphical user interface 700.For a medical storage facility, air quality information can be providedthrough the graphical user interface 700.

The processes described herein can be performed on or between one ormore computing devices. Referring now to FIG. 8, an example computingdevice 800 is presented. A computing device 800 can be a server, acomputing device that is integrated with other systems or subsystems, amobile computing device, a cloud-based computing capability, and soforth. The computing device 800 can be any suitable computing device aswould be understood in the art, including without limitation, a customchip, an embedded processing device, a tablet computing device, apersonal data assistant (PDA), a desktop, a laptop, a microcomputer, aminicomputer, a server, a mainframe, an environmental surveillancecomputing system 108, 208, 308, 408, computing device 104, 204, 304,404, 504, 604, 704, access point 120A, 120B, 220, 320, 420, or any othersuitable programmable device. In various embodiments disclosed herein, asingle component can be replaced by multiple components and multiplecomponents can be replaced by a single component to perform a givenfunction or functions. Except where such substitution would not beoperative, such substitution is within the intended scope of theembodiments.

The computing device 800 includes a processor 802 that can be anysuitable type of processing unit, for example a general purpose centralprocessing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computer (RISC), aprocessor that has a pipeline or multiple processing capabilityincluding having multiple cores, a complex instruction set computer(CISC), a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specificintegrated circuits (ASIC), a programmable logic devices (PLD), and afield programmable gate array (FPGA), among others. The computingresources can also include distributed computing devices, cloudcomputing resources, and virtual computing resources in general.

The computing device 800 also includes one or more memories 806, forexample read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), cache memoryassociated with the processor 802, or other memories such as dynamic RAM(DRAM), static ram (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), electricallyerasable PROM (EEPROM), flash memory, a removable memory card or disk, asolid state drive, and so forth. The computing device 800 also includesstorage media such as a storage device that can be configured to havemultiple modules, such as magnetic disk drives, floppy drives, tapedrives, hard drives, optical drives and media, magneto-optical drivesand media, compact disk drives, Compact Disk Read Only Memory (CD-ROM),Compact Disk Recordable (CD-R), Compact Disk Rewriteable (CD-RW), asuitable type of Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) or BluRay disk, and soforth. Storage media such as flash drives, solid state hard drives,redundant array of individual disks (RAID), virtual drives, networkeddrives and other memory means including storage media on the processor802, or memories 806 are also contemplated as storage devices. It can beappreciated that such memory can be internal or external with respect tooperation of the disclosed embodiments. It can be appreciated thatcertain portions of the processes described herein can be performedusing instructions stored on a computer-readable medium or media thatdirect a computer system to perform the process steps. Non-transitorycomputer-readable media, as used herein, comprises all computer-readablemedia except for transitory, propagating signals.

Network and communication interfaces 812 can be configured to transmitto, or receive data from, other computing devices 800 across a network814. The network and communication interfaces 812 can be an Ethernetinterface, a radio interface, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, orany other suitable communications interface and can include receivers,transmitter, and transceivers. For purposes of clarity, a transceivercan be referred to as a receiver or a transmitter when referring to onlythe input or only the output functionality of the transceiver. Examplecommunication interfaces 812 can include wired data transmission linkssuch as Ethernet and TCP/IP. The communication interfaces 812 caninclude wireless protocols for interfacing with private or publicnetworks 814. For example, the network and communication interfaces 812and protocols can include interfaces for communicating with privatewireless networks such as a WiFi network, one of the IEEE 802.7x familyof networks, or another suitable wireless network. The network andcommunication interfaces 812 can include interfaces and protocols forcommunicating with public wireless networks 812, using for examplewireless protocols used by cellular network providers, including CodeDivision Multiple Access (CDMA) and Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM). A computing device 800 can use network andcommunication interfaces 812 to communicate with hardware modules suchas a database or data store, or one or more servers or other networkedcomputing resources. Data can be encrypted or protected fromunauthorized access.

In various configurations, the computing device 800 can include a systembus 816 for interconnecting the various components of the computingdevice 800, or the computing device 800 can be integrated into one ormore chips such as programmable logic device or application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC). The system bus 816 can include a memorycontroller, a local bus, or a peripheral bus for supporting input andoutput devices 804, and communication interfaces 812. Example input andoutput devices 804 include keyboards, keypads, gesture or graphicalinput devices, motion input devices, touchscreen interfaces, one or moredisplays, audio units, voice recognition units, vibratory devices,computer mice, and any other suitable user interface.

The processor 802 and memory 806 can include nonvolatile memory forstoring computer-readable instructions, data, data structures, programmodules, code, microcode, and other software components for storing thecomputer-readable instructions in non-transitory computer-readablemediums in connection with the other hardware components for carryingout the methodologies described herein. Software components can includesource code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, staticcode, dynamic code, encrypted code, or any other suitable type of codeor computer instructions implemented using any suitable high-level,low-level, object-oriented, visual, compiled, or interpreted programminglanguage.

It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the presentinvention have been simplified to illustrate elements that are relevantfor a clear understanding of the present invention, while eliminating,for purposes of clarity, other elements. Those of ordinary skill in theart will recognize, however, that these sorts of focused discussionswould not facilitate a better understanding of the present invention,and therefore, a more detailed description of such elements is notprovided herein.

Any element expressed herein as a means for performing a specifiedfunction is intended to encompass any way of performing that functionincluding, for example, a combination of elements that performs thatfunction. Furthermore the invention, as may be defined by suchmeans-plus-function claims, resides in the fact that the functionalitiesprovided by the various recited means are combined and brought togetherin a manner as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, any means thatcan provide such functionalities may be considered equivalents to themeans shown herein. Moreover, the processes associated with the presentembodiments may be executed by programmable equipment, such ascomputers. Software or other sets of instructions that may be employedto cause programmable equipment to execute the processes may be storedin any storage device, such as, for example, a computer system(non-volatile) memory, an optical disk, magnetic tape, or magnetic disk.Furthermore, some of the processes may be programmed when the computersystem is manufactured or via a computer-readable memory medium.

It can also be appreciated that certain process aspects described hereinmay be performed using instructions stored on a computer-readable memorymedium or media that direct a computer or computer system to performprocess steps. A computer-readable medium may include, for example,memory devices such as diskettes, compact discs of both read-only andread/write varieties, optical disk drives, and hard disk drives. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium may also include memory storagethat may be physical, virtual, permanent, temporary, semi-permanentand/or semi-temporary.

These and other embodiments of the systems and methods can be used aswould be recognized by those skilled in the art. The above descriptionsof various systems and methods are intended to illustrate specificexamples and describe certain ways of making and using the systemsdisclosed and described here. These descriptions are neither intended tobe nor should be taken as an exhaustive list of the possible ways inwhich these systems can be made and used. A number of modifications,including substitutions of systems between or among examples andvariations among combinations can be made. Those modifications andvariations should be apparent to those of ordinary skill in this areaafter having read this disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: an access point device configured to: obtain over a first communication link environmental data from a sensor manager that receives the environmental data over a second communication link from at least one sensor in a monitored environment that generates the environmental data based on at least one condition with the monitored environment; communicate with at least one other sensor manager; transmit the environmental data over a third communication link to an environmental surveillance computing system that is configured to activate an actuator positioned proximate to the monitored environment to trigger an alarm in response to detection of a reference environmental condition within the monitored environment based on the environmental data; and in response to communication between the environmental surveillance computing system and the access point device being interrupted: store additional environmental data from the sensor manager during the interruption; assume control of the actuator from the environmental surveillance computing system, and controlling the actuator to trigger the alarm in response to detection of the reference environmental condition within the monitored environment.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the access point device is further configured to: in response to communications between the environmental surveillance computing system and the access point no longer being interrupted: transmit the additional environmental data to the environmental surveillance computing system; and release control of the actuator to the environmental surveillance computing system.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the access point device is further configured to, in response to the trigger of the alarm, presents an event detail notification that requires an acknowledgement action from a recipient of the event detail notification.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor comprises a plurality of sensors, wherein each of the plurality of sensors is in communication with the sensor manager via at least one of a wired communication link or a wireless communication link.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor comprises a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a voltage sensor, a current sensor, a sound level sensor, a carbon dioxide level sensor, an air quality sensor, a power consumption sensor, a lighting level sensor, an air flow sensor, or a humidity sensor.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitored environment is a monitored climate-controlled environment.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first communication link is a wired communication link and the second communication link is a wireless communication link.
 8. A method, comprising: obtaining, by an access point device comprising a processor, environmental data over a first communication link from a sensor manager that receives the environmental data over a second communication link from at least one sensor in a monitored environment that generates the environmental data based on at least one condition with the monitored environment; communicating, by the access point device, with at least one other sensor manager; providing, by the access point device, the environmental data over a third communication link to an environmental surveillance computing system that is configured to activate an actuator positioned proximate to the monitored environment to trigger an alarm in response to detection of a reference environmental condition within the monitored environment based on the environmental data; and in response to communication between the environmental surveillance computing system and the access point device being interrupted: storing, by the access point device, additional environmental data from the sensor manager during the interruption; taking, by the access point device, control of the actuator from the environmental surveillance computing system, and control, by the access point device, the actuator to trigger the alarm in response to detection of the reference environmental condition within the monitored environment.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: in response to communications between the environmental surveillance computing system and the access point no longer being interrupted: providing, by the access point device, the additional environmental data to the environmental surveillance computing system; and releasing, by the access point device, control of the actuator to the environmental surveillance computing system.
 10. The method of claim 8, further comprising: in response to the trigger of the alarm, presenting, by the access point device, an event detail notification that requires an acknowledgement action from a recipient of the event detail notification.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one sensor comprises a plurality of sensors, wherein each of the plurality of sensors is in communication with the sensor manager via at least one of a wired communication link or a wireless communication link.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one sensor comprises a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a voltage sensor, a current sensor, a sound level sensor, a carbon dioxide level sensor, an air quality sensor, a power consumption sensor, a lighting level sensor, an air flow sensor, or a humidity sensor.
 13. The method of claim 8, wherein the monitored environment is a monitored climate-controlled environment.
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein the first communication link is a wired communication link and the second communication link is a wireless communication link.
 15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution, cause an access point device including a processor to perform operations comprising: receiving environmental data over a first communication link from a sensor manager that receives the environmental data over a second communication link from at least one sensor in a monitored environment that generates the environmental data based on at least one condition with the monitored environment; communicating with at least one other sensor manager; sending the environmental data over a third communication link to an environmental surveillance computing system that is configured to activate an actuator positioned proximate to the monitored environment to trigger an alarm in response to detection of a reference environmental condition within the monitored environment based on the environmental data; and in response to communication between the environmental surveillance computing system and the access point device being interrupted: storing additional environmental data from the sensor manager during the interruption; taking control of the actuator from the environmental surveillance computing system, and control the actuator to trigger the alarm in response to detection of the reference environmental condition within the monitored environment.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising: in response to communications between the environmental surveillance computing system and the access point no longer being interrupted: sending the additional environmental data to the environmental surveillance computing system; and releasing control of the actuator to the environmental surveillance computing system.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising: in response to the trigger of the alarm, presenting, by the access point device, an event detail notification that requires an acknowledgement action from a recipient of the event detail notification.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one sensor comprises a plurality of sensors, wherein each of the plurality of sensors is in communication with the sensor manager via at least one of a wired communication link or a wireless communication link.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one sensor comprises a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a voltage sensor, a current sensor, a sound level sensor, a carbon dioxide level sensor, an air quality sensor, a power consumption sensor, a lighting level sensor, an air flow sensor, or a humidity sensor.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the monitored environment is a monitored climate-controlled environment. 